LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Boron: Elements
built 629 days ago
Boron is a light trace element that is turning out to be essential to human health and behavior. The word boron has its origin in the Persian and Arabic words for "borax", a compound that contains the element boron, and is more often found in dry climates. The importance of boron to human health did not even become apparent to scientists until the mid-1980's, so it isn't surprising if you know little about this trace element.
Source:
Description: Boron #10... known as sodium polyborate, is a free-flowing, white, crystalline salt. Boron, the key element in Boron #10, is an essential micronutrient and is present in all foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts. The average person consumes between one to three milligrams each day as part of a normal healthy diet. Boron occurs naturally in air, water, and soil.
Source:
Boron makes up 0.001% of the Earth's crust. It is never found in the uncombined or elementary state in nature. Besides being present to the extent of a few parts per million in sea water, it occurs as a trace element in most soils and is an essential constituent of several rock-forming silicate minerals, such as tourmaline and datolite. The presence of boron in extremely small amounts seems to be necessary in nearly all forms of plant life, but in larger concentrations, it becomes quite toxic to vegetation. Only in a very limited number of localities are high concentrations of boron or large deposits of boron minerals to be found in nature; the more important of these seem to be primarily of volcanic origin.
Source:
Boron is ... an essential trace mineral in plants. A trace mineral is an element needed in minute amounts for the good health of an organism. Boron is critical to production of certain essential plant proteins and to help plants extract water from the soil. Low levels of boron show up as yellowing, blackening, twisting, or crumpling of leaves.
Source:
The element Boron was discovered in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy and by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. The element occurs as orthoboric acid usually found in volcanic spring waters and as borates in boron and colemantie. Ore rasorite (kernite) and tincal (borax ore) are important sources of boron found in the Mojave Desert. Extensive borax deposits are ... found in Turkey.
Source:
Boron was first discovered by the Ancient Egyptians in 1453, when the then pharoah Ptolemy was a-wandering in the Nile Delta. It is said that a small basket containing the baby element was uncovered in some bulrushes, but this claim is yet to be verified. He immediately put it to use in a great many stews, cakes and pies.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Elements